preamp pedals!

[Supernautilus]

So lately I've been going down the preamp pedal black hole. And oddly, it started with me getting sick of my Strymon Iridium. It's not the pedal's fault though. It's actually really good. I guess I'm just not as excited about amp modeling as I once was. The whole "Fender/Vox/Marshall" thing is getting kind of stale to me, if I'm being honest.

So I recently picked up a Two Notes Torpedo Cab M+. What a fantastic unit. So many options. I'm very impressed by it. Now the trick is finding a better preamp to use with it. It gets confusing though. As some of you many know, some pedals labeled as preamps really aren't, like the DOD250. And some pedals can work as preamps, but aren't labeled as such, like the Metal Zone.

Despite these challenges, I've been on the hunt for more units that might serve my purposes. I keep seeing praise for high end tube units like the Electrode Blackbird. Not sure if I want to spend that kind of money though. Then there are non-tube units like the Benson Preamp, which seems to be popular. Another company called Tubesteader makes tube based preamps that are supposed to be really good. So there are definitely some options out there.

How about y'all? Anyone familiar with preamp pedals that can give me any recommendations for things to try? A tube based one would be ideal, but I guess the FET based ones can be just as good. I would prefer one that's tries to do it's own thing and be more versatile, rather that one that tries to mimic an existing amp. And the end goal is to marry it to my Cab M+ so I can use impulses responses for direct recording purposes.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Check out AMT's offerings. They have three channel, single channel, tube, and solid state options. They also sound great, are built ruggedly, and quite flexible in the case of the multi channel boxes.

The Soldano SLO pedal sounds amazing, but is not as flexible as the AMT boxes.

I am kinda interested in the Carvin X1 too.

 

[Mincer]

If you can find a Palladium, check it out. It sounds massive, and has quite the gain range. It works well as a preamp and can even be used as a stompbox distortion.

 

[Securb]

The Chandler Tube Driver is the best MIB I have ever played but the prices for them have become ridiculous. THe price spike is most likely because Eric Johnson, Gilmore and Satch used one.

 

[Supernautilus]

Check out AMT's offerings. They have three channel, single channel, tube, and solid state options. They also sound great, are built ruggedly, and quite flexible in the case of the multi channel boxes.

The Soldano SLO pedal sounds amazing, but is not as flexible as the AMT boxes.

I am kinda interested in the Carvin X1 too.

Thanks, I had a AMT V1 years ago that I really liked. I’m looking for more versatility now though. The SS series look like they have more flexibility. Do you have any experience with those?

 

[Supernautilus]

If you can find a Palladium, check it out. It sounds massive, and has quite the gain range. It works well as a preamp and can even be used as a stompbox distortion.

I’ve seen these for years and I always wanted to try one. Do you know if these are based on anything or are they an original circuit design from SD?

EDIT: damn I just found one on Reverb for $135. I’m so tempted to grab it lol.

EDIT 2: also do you know if this unit takes pedals well? Like can you put a TS or something in front of it to tighten it up like a real amp? Thanks.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Thanks, I had a AMT V1 years ago that I really liked. I’m looking for more versatility now though. The SS series look like they have more flexibility. Do you have any experience with those?

Yeap, I was jamming with a songwriter who had the SS11, and tried it into the fx return of my Mesa Tremoverb as well as the clean channel of a KMD XV100SD (JCM800ish amp with 4x6550 tubes). It sounded fantastic with both setups.

 

[Mincer]

I’ve seen these for years and I always wanted to try one. Do you know if these are based on anything or are they an original circuit design from SD?

EDIT: damn I just found one on Reverb for $135. I’m so tempted to grab it lol.

EDIT 2: also do you know if this unit takes pedals well? Like can you put a TS or something in front of it to tighten it up like a real amp? Thanks.

The one I tried had a TS in front of it. Sounded great. I think it is an original design.

 

[Supernautilus]

The one I tried had a TS in front of it. Sounded great. I think it is an original design.

Nice. Ok I bought it. I couldn’t pass up that price. Can’t wait to try it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[trevorus]

Tech 21 Fly Rig pedals were my go to for preamp systems. The original, and now I have the RK5 version. It, with a Mooer Radar was my amp-less rig for a while, until I got a Headrush system.

 

[Securb]

Nice. Ok I bought it. I couldn’t pass up that price. Can’t wait to try it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

I borrowed one from a forum bro it is an awesome pedal

 

[Supernautilus]

I borrowed one from a forum bro it is an awesome pedal

Yeah I did some research and watched a bunch of demos. I thought it sounded good. Feature wise it seems like just what I’m looking for. The only criticisms I saw of the Palladium is that it’s too scooped and lacks character. A mid focused overdrive in front might fix that, I’ll have to see. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[donaldr]

Vox Valvenergy
Friedman IR-X and IR-D
Joyo American Sound
Tech21 Blonde, US Steel and one or two others
Tech 21 PSA-2
Victory Amps V4
JHS Clover
Two Notes Le Clean, Le Crunch, Le Lead, ReVolt
Ibanez Pentatone
Axiom DP-1
DSM & Humboldt Simplifier

​

 

[Mincer]

Make sure you let us know your impressions! I thought it was really cool.

 

[Securb]

The only criticisms I saw of the Palladium is that it’s too scooped and lacks character.

I would be willing to bet the majority of people saying that online are just parroting things they have read and have never played the pedal. The pedal has plenty of EQ control, especially with the mids,I did not find it to be scooped.

 

[Chistopher]

What does "lacks character" even mean.

 

[Mincer]

What does "lacks character" even mean.

It is one of those phrases that sounds like it means something.

 

[Supernautilus]

What does "lacks character" even mean.

I pulled that comment from a YouTube review. The reviewer felt it was a little generic sounding.

It’s always tough with this kind of thing though. So much depends on the reviewers rig, setup, recording etc. On my end, there’s YouTube compression and stuff to deal with. I’ve bought pedals before that sounded significantly different than the demos I listened to. It’s always a dice roll lol.

 

[Aceman]

This is not even a thing now.

Choose the amp style / Preamp of choice and Cab Sim box that works for you.

I don't know of any tube based things- but I do use a POD Go these days...and honestly, my little Mooer JCM900 is pretty good.

 

[Supernautilus]

I got my Palladium in yesterday and wanted to share some thoughts for anyone interested. This is my first and only Seymour Duncan pedal, so I was very eager to try it out and report back.

The first good thing I can say is that this unit doesn't sound like it's trying to mimic anything. It's definitely doing its own thing, which is good. It doesn't sound like any of my other pedals, which is nice because I was looking for different colors to broaden my palette.

The unit also sounds great in general. A really nice distortion with a nice grind to it. At low gain settings it still sounds good, as opposed to some pedals where the sound just drops out if you lower it too much. And then there is plenty of gain if you crank it. It doesn't get out of control though. I'm not too enthused about the boost function. But then, I'm not a fan of integrated boosts anyway, and I hadn't really planned on using it.

The EQ is powerful. I'm still trying to get the hang of the interactive nature of it, and dealing with some controls that overlap in functionality, like the Bass/Resonance or Treble/Presence controls. It'll probably take a lot more tweaking to find the settings that I really like.

The only real con I can think of is more of a mechanical issue, which is that the pots are very easy to turn. Like, they have almost no friction. Which makes them really easy to bump. I don't know if this it intended, or perhaps I just got a bad unit. This pedal is desk bound though and won't be going under my feet. So, I'm not too concerned about it. If I was using it live, it could become a problem though.

So yeah, I'll be keeping this one. At least for now hehe. I might try to record some tracks with it this weekend to see how it sounds in a mix.